Lillion, sorry that you are surrounded by b**ches, I would have thought that court/county (?) workers who are educated would behave better, all the Americans I've met have been so kind and polite. At least you know that they are the problem not you!!!!!
Brand new me, how are you? I had my colposcopy and though I'm still bleeding I got my results and its not cancer, just abnormal cells. Are your results good? Well done on the weight lost.
Countess, you are losing weight, no matter what you started at, I know its a nasty shock but try & focuss on what you have lost rather than what you weigh.
I am feeling pretty horrible, still bleeding, I've got an iron supplement which is water based & gentle on your stomach and after two weeks I can stop & go onto a hair & nails multi vit. Apparently the reason for lots of women losing hair is an iron deficiency, if anyone remembers I lost a lot of hair and was really worried about it. It grew back in tufts which looked pretty weird but some has fallen out again, the doc was no help at all, I had to research it myself.
I have to go but for everyone and to the new ladies.
Keep well & OP,
xxsharon

I just had to share. . . I weighed in this morning and I am down 5 pounds! It was way more than I was expecting, although I had been noticing that my body has been feeling different. So I am pretty much sure now that I lose in 2 week cycles. I remember that from when I was young and my progress now confirms it. For now I will still weigh in weekly, but I will definitely not worry about every other week.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Sharon ~ I had a friend whose hair was coming out and at the time that she told me about it I had recently read something about essential oils helping with that. I told her about it and she consulted an herbalist (?), who made her a mix of essential oils and it stopped her hair from falling out. She was able to grow it back.

If you look around on the Internet or at health food/vitamin stores, you might be able to find someone who works with essential oils and can help you. I was just suggesting it to her to be helpful because she had tried everything and no one could help her. It really did help, even more than I thought it would. It might be worth checking into.

NotTheCheat ~ I agree. I have to figure out what works for me, even if it means combining several ideas/concepts. (Congratulations on the 5 pounds).

Someone mentioned FitDay. I have actually spent a lot of time making myself a calorie spreadsheet, etc. It works very well, but everything I do is time consuming. I guess I should explain that my husband helps me with nothing. By the time I make dinner and lunches for both of us and clean up after, give my cat her medicine, pay bills or whatever, it is bed time (I wanted to exercise yesterday, but I didn't get out of the kitchen until about 8:30 p.m. We get up at 4:45 a.m. for work so I have an early bed time too and my whole night was gone). I use TV dinners to help cut down on time spent on lunches, but we can't afford them so I'm trying to get away from that.

I also can't really go online to use FitDay daily to enter foods because my husband monopolizes the computer when we're home. My husband isn't a bad guy, but he's got a serious sports addiction, which I'm thoroughly tired of dealing with. All he lives for is sports and I have to carry the load. I'm starting to ignore him as much as he does me. I have to go on, regardless of what he wants to do with his time. I'm trying to focus on my food and my health, but I am overloaded with distractions and responsibilities. Also something I need to work out, I suppose.

I started counting calories again and I've been OP for two days, so that's good. I'll figure something out. (I think I need more alone time FAR away from hubby!)

Tasha, thanks for the advice, I will see how this works first as I'll have pills & potions coming out of my ears! And of course the cost. Sorry to hear your hubby is a sports addict! why isn't he watching it on the tv? I use a notebook and pen to write down what I've eaten, quicker and easier to access! TV dinners aren't good for you anyway, at least cooking from scratch you know what you are eating, rather than lots of 'e' numbers and other chemicals. To get him to notice you you ought to slink in earing his team's shirt and nothing else! I hope you feel better about things soon, you seem a bit down, which seems to be affecting a lot of us.
Nancy, well done on 5 less pounds!!!!
got to put lunch out, dry roast potatoes mmmm.
xxsharon

Tasha - Sorry your hubby isn't more help to you. It certainly helps if they support you morally AND physically. I'm glad you are finding ways to lose weight that suit you. I can't be of any help at all because I have never counted calories or measured food since I started. Basically I just eat as little processed food as possible. Lots of salad and fresh fruit. I have a salad and sandwich for lunch and a salad and some protein for dinner. Even the protein I eat is cooked on a George Foreman grill, which takes next to no time or effort. I am a REALLY lazy cook.

Sharon - It is interesting that you mention that your hair is falling out and it can be due to iron deficiency. I had blood tests done to check all sorts of things and the iron came back fine, but B12 was low, which can also cause anaemia (sp?). Do you know if that causes hair loss as well? My hair has been thinning gradually for a while now and I don't know if it is just due to age or a deficiency. I have REALLY fine hair, so I can't afford to lose too much of it.

Nancy - CONGRATULATIONS on the loss!!!!! Keep up whatever you are doing! It is wonderful to see your efforts paying off. Isn't it weird that your losses work on a two week cycle? I'm not sure I've heard of that happening before. Your heart rate monitor sounds different to what I was imagining. I was hoping to just get one that fit on my wrist so I could wear it walking and such. I suppose I could still wear something that strapped to my chest.

Christine - I hope that the scales settle down for you soon. It is nice to at least have a 'vague' idea of what weight we are. I wish my weight would go DOWN before TOM. That would be a real novelty.

Maria Lucia - I can understand your worries about maintaining. I was a little worried about that too, but my dietitian friend has assured me that she will be able to guide me through that. Perhaps once you reach that stage it would be good to see a dietitian or some such to help you. Just a thought. You are making some great choices and have made wonderful progress so far. It IS something you will have to do for life, but it does get easier, believe me. I can't even imagine eating some things now that a couple of years ago I didn't think I could live without.

Countess - I am so sorry you are having this problem with your scale. When I got my new scale and it read almost 4 lbs higher than my old one (I know that isn't as big a difference as yours) I just adjusted my starting weight to 4 lbs higher so it still worked out that I had lost the same amount of weight. I would prefer to get on another set of scales, say at a doctor's or something, and have it read LESS, rather than more. I can relate to your husband weighing the same no matter where he stands. My hubby gets on both of our digital scales and weighs exactly the same, but I can't get it closer than 2lbs difference. I am not sure what the difference is... and I weigh LESS than him now (which was a MAJOR milestone for me).

Vicki - Congratulations on getting past the halfway mark. That is such a GREAT accomplishment! It is so wonderful to know that you are on the downhill side of your journey. Keep up the amazing effort!

Kayley - Well done on fitting into the smaller shirt you found. Nice cheap 'shopping' spree that one huh? I wore a 'hand-me-down' skirt to work today that only just fits now. It looked great and cost me nothing. Can't think of anything better. I can just imagine how quickly you want the next 3 weeks to go by. Remember that we want photos of you in your 'complete' outfit.

Lilion - I am SO sorry about your colleagues. I can never understand how some people can be so cold. They HAVE to know how their actions make you feel. They can't be THAT blind. At least you know that you are the better and stronger person in this situation and you will come out on top. This is what makes me happy that hubby and I aren't social people really at all. Mind you... I suppose it would at least be good to be asked, even if you didn't intend to go. People here have stopped asking us though because we don't go out much in the evenings at all. Perhaps that is what has happened at your work. Did you often go out socially with them before? I hope that this comes back to 'bite' them.

Brandnewme - I hope you recover quickly from the dental surgery. I HATE dental work of any kind. I am due to go for a clean and can't even bring myself to book the appointment. I am sure you will want to be back to exercising soon.

I have a couple of NSVs to report. The other day my dietician friend called and told me she saw some Winnie the Pooh pyjamas in the store she was in. She knows I LOVE Winnie the Pooh and wanted to know if I wanted her to pick me up some. Well, we weren't sure of the size, but she got the smaller one and it FIT!!! I am so excited! This may sound silly, but it isn't just that the smaller size fit, but the fact that I can now wear Winnie the Pooh pyjamas. When I was bigger I couldn't even dream of finding anything in my size with Winnie the Pooh on it. I know... I'm still a kid at heart.

My other NSV is that a colleague and I are attending the same Professional Development in the city tomorrow and she offered to drive me there. Well... a couple of years ago this offer would have sent chills down my spine because I couldn't get most seatbelts around me without a very embarrassing struggle. So I always declined such offers and drove myself. Well, I didn't even blink this time and just happily accepted the offer. It was such an enlightening experience as I hadn't really thought of that as a difference my weight loss would make. It is nice when these things crop up and surprise me.

Well, off to bed to read and hopefully get a good night's sleep. I'm sure I've missed people, but I REALLY have to get some sleep soon. It is great to see so many people losing, which I suppose means that you are 'winning'. WAY TO GO!

Take care all,

Zelma

Ammi – I am so with you on not wanting to exercise and keeping track of the time some days. Luckily, it’s not like that everyday, but man, those workouts are so much less fun than the ones where I’m rockin’ on.

Christine – I got my ph.d. down the road from you in Ann Arbor and to move on certain Saturdays you HAD to know the football schedule. They say AA doubles in size on football Saturdays.

As for weighing myself, I do weigh several times a week (mornings and evenings) to get a sense of fluctuations. That extra pound kicked around for several days, but I think it’s gone now. I “officially” weigh in Monday mornings.

Maria Lucia – I know what you mean about keeping the weight off. I browse (and sometimes post) at the maintainers forum, as Nancy said. I want to know what THEY do, because I suspect it’s what I have to do. It’s quite sobering, because really, you have to KEEP doing what you did to lose weight. Anyway, I recommend checking them out.

Dolphingirl – way to kick butt with the WL! Congrats! You get a

Okay, I have to get ready to give a presentation (hopefully entertaining) to several HUNDRED HS kids who are waiting for test results. Shoot me now!